September 27 - Inwood Hill Park - Pectoral Sandpiper continues

A beautiful, sunny and birdy fall morning in Inwood. I went out just after 7:00 am and was rewarded with an Indigo Bunting and a Marsh Wren in the Spartina patch in Muscota Marsh. Continuing around the new Columbia park area I watched the Pectoral Sandpiper that has been present since last week fly in and start feeding on the mud in front of the boat launch ramp. I immediately used by cellphone to called Dale Dancis who had already made one failed attempt to see the Pectoral. I caught her as she was heading into Central Park. She said she would hop on the subway and head up to Inwood. Then I called Ann to tell her that she should be able to see the Pectoral from our apartment window. While I was giving her directions to the bird, which was still feeding on the mud in fornt of me, Nadir called from the ridge to say there were lots of migrants in. I let him know I would be up s soon as I could and called Ann back. She had spotted the Pectoral while I was talking to Nadir. At that point, I dashed back to the apartment so that I could also add the species to my apartment list. Later in the day, when the tide came in the Pectoral roosted on the rocks with a bunch of Semipalmated Sandpipers for hours, clearly visible from our apartment window. The Pectoral is number 111 for my apartment list, and not one I ever expected to get for the apartment.

Pectoral Sandpiper and Semipalmated Sandpipers from apartment window                        © Joseph DiCostanzo

Ann and I headed into the park and joined Nadir on the ridge where there were indeed patches of migrants here and there. One of the highlights was, for the second time in my birding career, being able to point into a tree and say, "Nashville, Tennessee" as individuals of these two warbler species fed close to each other. The full list from the morning's birding follows.

Canada Goose
Mallard
Great Egret
Osprey (carrying a fish and later seen perched eating it)
Semipalmated Sandpiper (15)
Pectoral Sandpiper (1)
Ring-billed Gull
Herring Gull
Rock Pigeon
Mourning Dove
Red-bellied Woodpecker
Downy Woodpecker
Northern Flicker
Eastern Wood-Pewee
Eastern Phoebe
Blue-headed Vireo (2)
Red-eyed Vireo
Blue Jay
White-breasted Nuthatch
Carolina Wren
Marsh Wren (1, Muscota Marsh)
Golden-crowned Kinglet
Ruby-crowned Kinglet
American Robin
Gray Catbird
Northern Mockingbird
European Starling
Cedar Waxwing
Black-and-white Warbler
Tennessee Warbler (1, with apparently broken leg))
Nashville Warbler (1)
Common Yellowthroat
American Redstart
Northern Parula
Magnolia Warbler
Palm Warbler
Black-throated Green Warbler (2 - 3)
Eastern Towhee
Song Sparrow
Swamp Sparrow
White-throated Sparrow
Northern Cardinal
Indigo Bunting (1, Muscota Marsh)
House Sparrow